Libya should start the process to hold an election in spring 2019 only after a national conference to discuss its conflict, the U.N. Libya envoy said on Thursday, officially burying a long obsolete idea to stage a vote next month.

Western powers and the United Nations had originally hoped to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 10 as a way out of Libya's conflict raging sine the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But violence and a deadlock between rival administrations had made that goal unrealistic although nobody had declared it officially dead or offered a new time frame.

Instead, the United Nations wants to focus on a national conference to give Libyans a forum to discuss their future and bridge divisions between armed groups, tribes, town and regions, Ghassan Salame told the U.N. Security Council.

"The National Conference is to be held in the first weeks of 2019. The subsequent electoral process should commence in the spring of 2019," Salame said, without being more specific about whether he meant it was expected then or that it ought to happen then.

Saleme did not give a new date for elections or even mention the date of Dec. 10 agreed only verbally by rival Libyan players at a summit hosted by France in May.

Shelving the vote is the latest setback for Western powers that helped topple Gaddafi seven years ago before stepping back and seeing hopes for a democratic transition crumble.

Salame said the internationally recognised House of Representatives had deliberately failed to approve legislation to hold a vote.

"The House has failed to uphold its responsibilities," he said. "It is now clear that the postponed sessions and contradictory public statements (by lawmakers) were simply intended to waste time. The body calling itself Libya’s sole legislature is largely sterile."

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